Transoxiana (sometimes spelled Transoxania / Ma Wara'un-Nahr (Arabic: ما وراء النهر) / Farārood (Persian: فرارود) / Hé Zhōng (Chinese: 河中)) is the ancient name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and southwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it means the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. When used in the present, it usually implies that one is talking about that region in the time prior to about the 8th century AD, although the term continued to remain in use among western historians for several centuries after. In the Persian epic Shahnameh, written by the poet Ferdowsi, Transoxiana is the homeland of the Iranian nomadic tribes and the Oxus river is the border between Iran and Turan.
The region was one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia under the name Sogdiana. Transoxiana, however, is Latin, and literally means "beyond the Oxus River", the Greek name for the Amu Darya, which describes the region perfectly from the viewpoint of the Greeks and Romans. The Arabic "mā wara` an-nahr", "that which is beyond the river": is an alternate name for the country.